July 2020
MsWas's Message Corner
Hello CBR12 participants and friends of Cannonball Read,
Bothari43 included a couple of reminders about the 2020 US Census in recent newsletters, and I wanted to share one tidbit - the Census Bureau might actually call YOU! If you submitted your Census form, you may get a follow-up phone call from 844-809-7747 like I did. I was suspicious - who calls these days?? But it was legit, and here’s how to be sure. I called back to verify some info, and it was short and easy to finish. Make sure you’re counted!
Back in June I was so happy that our local library opened for curbside pickup - has yours opened yet? Thanks to everyone in the Facebook group who gave me great book suggestions to request. Two of my personal 5-star reads from that list are The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood and Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes.
Speaking of lists - I’m super psyched for all of your submissions in the CBR12 Book Bingo Reading Challenge. I love to see those squares filling up, and it’s definitely something to pique everyone’s interests these days. Did you rearrange your TBR list to fill in those squares? I hope you can get your hands on all the books you need.
Take care and Happy Reading!
Bonnie (aka "MsWas")
Q&A with a Cannonballer: Aquillia
 What do you write? Will CBR fantasy fans ever get to read an Aquillia original?
I hope they will be able to someday; fingers crossed! I write fairly traditional fantasy -- secondary world, largely medieval-Europe-based, with multiple point-of-view characters -- except it has very little magic. I'm interested in exploring fantasy-political machinations and dysfunctional family relationships more than intricate magic systems or lengthy battle scenes. I have a PhD in Roman history and can definitely see an overlap between my historical and writing interests (especially the dysfunctional families part...!)
My work-in-progress is about a long-standing feud between a king and his baron; when war threatens, their adult children are forced to choose between loyalty to their families or their kingdom, even though such loyalties demand that they give up their own dreams and desires. It's a long road to publication and I'm not yet at a place where I feel confident in my craft to take that next step in attempting to make it happen, but I keep trying to improve and learn from my myriad of mistakes. Staying motivated can be difficult, especially during a pandemic, but lately I've been really inspired by Guy Gavriel Kay's very historical, low-magic fantasy.
The Book Bingo Reading Challenge is back!
With some new challenges and some returning favorite squares, Bingo has triumphantly returned! You have until Saturday, October 31 to complete a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line, or get ambitious and blackout your card, to be entered into a raffle for some cool prize drawing. Make sure you put cbr12bingo in the tags at the bottom of your review to make sure all your Bingo entries get counted. Get more details here, and feel free to ask questions in the comments. Have fun and good luck!
And a Bingo-related Diversion
Whether you're participating in Bingo this year or not, you can still jump in on this Diversion! Do you have a suggestion or the perfect book for a Bingo square? Share in the comments, or collect some ideas for your own Bingo strategy. (And come on, we all know we love to recommend stuff around here.)
Mid-year donation
It's time for another donation to the American Cancer Society! As if reading and reviewing wasn't impressive enough, CBR has also raised $75 for the ACS this quarter, bringing the total to $150 so far this year. (Our overall grand total is $6,750!)
With so many worthy causes out there (unfortunately), it's understandable that our donations are down a bit this year, so we especially appreciate everything everybody is doing to support our mission of f--king cancer right in the ear. If you'd like to help boost those numbers a bit, donations are always accepted and appreciated!
On the subject of donations, we've received an amazing one that will cover our website hosting and SSL renewal into next year! Once our CBR costs are covered, absolutely everything else goes to the American Cancer Society, so this will be a huge bump for our fundraising the rest of the year. Thank you so much to all our donors and participants!
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